SNEAKERS: History, Collection, Culture

In my final year of university, I was asked to write and design a written thesis on a topic of my choice. So I decided to write about sneaker culture, investigating why people collect sneakers.

This book is a physical copy of the design aspect of this thesis that is made to resemble a sneaker editorial.

The main ​​​​​​​research question for this thesis was "Why do people collect sneakers?" Even though it is a broad question, this was what essentially I wanted to find out. The rise of the 'sneaker culture' is all based on this question.

So, firstly I had to research the origins of sneaker culture which was in 'The Bronx' New York. It all stemmed from Teenagers wanting to be noticed by their peers by the shoes or 'kicks they wore on their feet.

Style​​​​​​​ was important in those days as that was essentially how you were judged by your peers and how you impressed members of the opposite sex.

At first, sneaker collecting was an underground subculture until the emergence of one man. Michael Jordan. He and Nike used this subculture to their advantage and brought it to the masses. After that many people started collecting sneakers and 'jumped on the bandwagon' of the sneaker culture.

I also decided to talk about gender issues within the sneaker culture. Why they are the minority within the culture and why the population is rising thanks to many social influencers, and the changing face of fashion.

I also touched on the evolving technologies being used in sneakers and how these are being used by brands to set trends in fashion and the sneaker culture.